Came across this workstation concept over at Unplggd. The Novanta was designed by Luke Riggall and features — among many other things — Speakers, a USB and Audio Hub, Monitor Stand, and iPod Dock. It’s definitely eye catching and a logical extension of your Mac setup, but it seems a little bulky to be practical. The apparent lack of adjustability would be a big problem for me too. But the cable management system looks very useful and the whole thing has a very utilitarian vibe that I’m liking. I don’t think this could be my main work desk but it would make a great secondary for the print room or a smaller office space.

On that note I’ve been really geeking out on desks lately. My last desk was a little too wide for my needs and the surface was pretty thick. It was getting in the way of my outboard rack and I figured something a bit more svelte would open up the space a little. I’ll try to post some pics next week.

Tyler Hayes’ furniture label BDDW is a favorite of mine. The prices are — as with nearly all well-designed furniture — off the charts, but it’s always fun to look. I haven’t had a chance to check out their SoHo, NYC showroom in person but Trendland has a nice gallery by Patricia Thompson (who also has some great shots at her Flickr) detailing the interior.

I’m getting a rustic-take-on-Dieter-Rams vibe from that second one. Really nice stuff.

Opened up my Bose 901 Series V’s today and found that all the driver foam was completely disintegrated. So sad, such a beautiful set of speakers. Apparently you can re-foam them but seems time consuming and I’m not sure I have the skills anyways. Anyone have any experience with this? Mr. Coles?

I love desks by George Nelson, his Swag Leg is a favorite. I came across another great example of Nelson’s work over at Modernity, the Home Office Desk by George Nelson for Herman Miller. Absolutely perfect; I’ve always liked the idea of large desks but seeing this and the Swag Leg make me think it might be nice to have something a little more compact. And I love Modernity’s photographic style, great product shots (sorry for the small pics though, they didn’t have anything bigger). Some more can be found here.

Since we’re on the subject of Dieter Rams this week, I thought I’d post on his Vitsoe Shelving series. You may remeber the name Vitsoe from the Name That Chair post a while back, but it’s not enough just to have a Rams chair, you must also surround it with his amazing shelves. The Vitsoe site features a nice gallery of the shelves in their natural habitat, and you’ll also catch a few 620 chairs in there.

If course, a setup like those in the gallery will no doubt cost you an arm and a leg, but it’s nice to look. It’s always funny, whenever I somehow randomly find myself in some rich guy house, they never have anything as cool as this. It’s either gaudy old classical gold leaf stuff dripping with ornament or garish nouveau riche style with white carpets and bad marble floors. Apparently you have to be broke or German to appreciate this stuff.

I’ve been obsessing over Herman Miller furniture lately, spending way too much time browsing Hive. Herman Miller introduced it’s new Lifework Portfolio recently and I have to say it’s pretty clean. Included are some old favorites like the Nelson Swag Leg Desk and also some great newcomers. This Cognita is what stood out to me, I’m always a sucker for the whole wood-grain/white/stainless-steel look. The only problem is the price: $999. I can’t imagine spending a grand for something billed as a “storage bench” any time in the near future but it’s always fun to look.

I feel like if I did get a piece like the Cognita it would make everything else I have look so bad I would have to throw it all away and start from scratch. I guess it could be reasoned that buying one expensive piece of quality furniture that will last you a lifetime is a better investment than constantly buying sub-par stuff (Ikea) and replacing it every few years as it breaks or starts to look dated. I guess I just don’t have any experience with Herman Miller in particular so I don’t really know if it would hold up long enough to be worth the investment. Anybody splurged on high end furniture like this and if so, has it held up well? Was it worth it or do you regret the indulgence? Let us know in the comments